Despite containing only one question, it's the citizenship survey that's created a storm.
The online survey asks whether individuals support changes to Australian citizenship legislation put forward by One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson -- which includes increasing residence requirements from four years to eight, as well as a strengthened English test.
The online survey was created to reduce an influx of long-form written submissions.
Anyone from around the world can vote 'yes' or 'no' as many times as they like.
Senator Hanson -- who has long campaigned for a reduction in immigration numbers -- says social media pages overseas have circulated the survey, encouraging people to vote "no".
((HANSON))
"I'm sorry to say that survey has been hijacked by foreign interference into Australia's democratic process. For the past number of weeks social media pages from across the globe including refugee advocates, immigration agencies , even official German and Brazilian hounoree consulate Facebook pages, actively encourage foreign nationals to vote 'no'."
Senator Hanson says she wants the results of the survey disregarded, but the federal parliamentary committee that ordered the survey says that won't happen.
The Turnbull government last year tried to increase the wait time for permanent residents to apply for citizenship to four years, but the bill was blocked in the Senate, mostly because of crossbench opposition to a tougher English language test for citizenship.
Nicholas Houston, a Migration Lawyer at the immigration-focused law firm VisAustralia, says that proposal was unfair on would-be Australians.
((HOUSTON))
"Pauline Hanson would now have that put at eight years, so people have to be in Australia as permanent resident for eight years prior to being able to apply for citizenship. That was one issue we had with the legislation. The other issue is that it was backdated. It was to be backdated to the date that Malcolm Turnbull made the announcement in April 2017. That's a huge concern that we have because it affected a whole lot of people already in Australia."
The storm comes as new Home Affairs data shows about 75 per cent of citizenship applicants are waiting up to 13 months for decisions on their applications.
The Home Affairs department says the lengthening delay is down to the growing number of people seeking citizenship each year.
((ms)) Ahlam Shafa Amri from Sydney's south passed her citizenship test in September last year, but says she's still waiting to hear back about the status of her application.
((AMRI))
"I went there, I did the test. Everything was good. I passed the test. Later on, I didn't get any feedback from them (about) what happened. I tried to call them actually, and they told me they don't have any idea why, and what's happened, but maybe it may take longer - but without any explanation."
Shruti Vaidya ((VAY-d'yuh)) from the Fair Go For Migrants group says some applicants are afraid to speak out about their long waiting time, because they're worried it'll have an adverse impact on their application.
((VAIDYA))
"I was just talking to somebody today and asked them if they'd like to talk to SBS about how long they've been waiting for. They were so afraid of actually getting their application rejected, if they just spoke to you. It's really disheartening to see. If we are not allowed to stand up for our own rights, who will do that for us?".
[Full story is available on audio news]
